Potential Food and Pharmaceutical Application of Livestock Blood Proteins

Abstract

Livestock blood generated in slaughterhouses is a huge impediment to the sustainability of the meat industry. Blood is produced in large quantities with high nutritional value but is underutilized, resulting in a giant waste of protein resources and severe environmental pollution. Many studies have been devoted to improving the added value of the slaughtered by-product blood, among which the biotransformation to obtain blood proteins or peptides is a noteworthy strategy. This article aims to evaluate the application potential of slaughtering by-product livestock blood in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Methods for the preparation of livestock blood proteins and peptides are summarized, and how livestock blood proteins and peptides can be used in the food industry as antioxidants, stabilizers, and biomarkers for meat product quality determination are also discussed. Moreover, functional components derived from livestock blood that can be used in the pharmaceutical industry are also presented. This article concludes by emphasizing the great potential of livestock blood being applied in food and pharmaceutical industries, which will hopefully minimize the environmental load of the meat industry by achieving the valorization of this underutilized slaughtering by-product.